Rules of Dating
by SeleneD
Summary: AU/AH. Kol/Caroline - Koroline. "In the world of online dating there are many rules. Two people will learn what they are, but what they don't know is; that they already know each other."


**A/N: Hi, readers. New story. All mistakes are mine as I wrote it at 2am. But give it a read and review telling me what you think. Thanks. -Sin. **

* * *

Chapter 1

Blonde Ambition and Trouble Maker

* * *

Caroline sighed and rolled her eyes at her friend, Elena who was currently trying to convince her that joining an online dating site was the right thing to do. Because apparently Caroline has been single for far too long and her friends are worried that she is going to end up an old spinster with 6 cats and an addiction to reality shows that she keeps watching too much off. Caroline didn't agree with Elena of course. In her mind, nothing was wrong. So what if she had a dry spell? Granted, it's been two years but she's just picky and all the men she did know weren't right for her. Caroline wasn't one to settle for just anyone.

So hearing that your best friend was trying to set you up with every loser in the city wasn't what she had in mind when Elena wanted to come around and show her something online.

"Elena, I told you, I'm not interested" Caroline said, leaning against the kitchen counter, a bowl of ice cream in her hands and pointing the spoon at the brunette.

"Come on, it could be fun." Her friend tried saying with a big grin on her face. "I signed up and already had three dates this month"

Caroline snorted and rolled her eyes when the brunette wasn't looking. Of course she already had more dates in a month than Caroline had in a year. When you're a girl like Elena, that gives it up on the first date and then complains about why no one ever calls you back, Caroline would rather not be that way. She loved her friend dearly, but sometimes she couldn't understand what everyone saw in her.

"I still say no, so you are just wasting your time" Caroline smiled sweetly and put the empty bowl in the sink making her way into the living room and flopping down on the couch, turning on the TV.

"But I already signed you on!" Came a reply from the kitchen and Caroline groaned.

Great. Leave it to Elena to make things worse. She shook her head and chose to ignore the girl, focusing on the show that was playing.

"Come on, Care, just have a look." Elena pleaded bringing the laptop over to the couch and showing the page to the blonde. "If you don't like it, just don't use it. Give it a week. For me"

Caroline narrowed her eyes at her friend and with a sigh, she gave in and switched off the TV and leaned forward to scan her profile.

"Really? My username is BlondeAmbition?" She asked, turning to Elena and raised her brow. "What's next? I like long walks on the beach and the color pink? God, you make me sound like Elle Woods."

"Who?"

"I'm just gonna pretend you didn't just say that"

Caroline read the rest of the profile and noted that there wasn't much information about her, which she was glad about, but then how, was she supposed to meet anyone. And it didn't have a picture of her. Which was confusing because all dating sites had pictures, right? How else will you know who you were talking to?

"Um, picture?" She asked turning to her friend and pointing to the laptop.

"Oh yeah, it's this new craze with this site. You don't get to see how the other person looks like until you decide to meet them." Elena shrugged examining her nails. "Something about connecting with the person on a deeper level than just looks or something like that. I'm not too sure."

"What do you mean you aren't sure? You are on this site"

"Actually, I'm not. I'm using one that allows pictures. I mean, imagine finding out the person you are talking to is some old man with fat fingers and bad breath. Just no" Elena said and laughed.

Caroline arched a perfect brow and let a disapproving frown settle on her face, while she looked at her friend.

"And that's my queue to leave." She said and grabbed her bag, getting off the couch and walked to the door opening and turning back at the last minute. "Just have a look. Talk with some people, see how it is" She said and closed the door behind her.

Caroline scoffed and closed the lid of the laptop and pushed it to the side. There was no way she was talking to complete strangers and telling them about herself without knowing who it was she was talking to. Who knows what kind of lunatic was behind the screen. She wasn't desperate and she could get a date on her own just fine. She will show them.

With that thought in mind, she nodded to herself and headed to the bedroom where she will get herself ready and go out tonight. Her boss has been asking her to check out that new club downtown for a week and this will give her the perfect opportunity to see if there are any good looking men left in the city. And if not, then she can always tell Elena that she tried and then forget about the whole thing.

* * *

Standing by the bar with his brother, Kol wasn't too happy to be out. But no one says no to Nik and here he is, in a loud club that charges way too much for a beer, no good looking females around and he was tired as hell to be out after working overtime at the hospital. What he was thinking when his brother dragged him out, he didn't know. Nursing a beer in his hand, he watched his brother flirt with every girl that gave him a smile and held back an eye roll. So far this day wasn't going well.

"So" Nik started when he had gotten rid of all the girls surrounding him. "How does online dating goes? Found anyone yet?"

Kol shook his head. "No one interesting yet"

"I don't see why you bother. You're a doctor, Kol; you could get any woman you wanted if you would just use it"

"But I don't want any woman, I want the right one"

Nik rolled his eyes at his younger brother. "If that's what you want"

"That's exactly how I want to do it" Kol said, "Do you know how many women at work are trying to go out with me? It's a night mare. Every day I get asked out at least five times."

"Kol, cheer up. It might never happen" Nik said and smirked at him, holding his own beer while getting the number of a brunette.

"And what if it has already happened?" Kol asked back, not looking amused.

"Don't tell me you are still pining after that doctor at work. I thought that was over"

"It is over, that's not why I'm in a bad mood"

"Then what is it?"

"I'm tired, Nik. All I want to do is go home and sleep. I have to work the night shift tomorrow and I need some sleep" Kol said with a sigh and sipped his beer.

"I'll tell you what. If you get one number then I'll take you home" Nik smirked.

"Just one?" Kol raised a brow in question. This will be too easy, he thought.

Nik nodded and Kol scanned the crowd. All he had to do was walk up to a girl; say a few lines and he would have her number. Which he would delete right away and not speak of it any more. Noticing a group of woman standing over by the other end of the bar and eyeing Nik, Kol smirked and tapped Nik on the arm, pointing to the girls.

"Watch this. I'll get all five" Kol smirked and sipped his beer, slowly walking through the crowd of people to get to the girls.

On his way, he bumped into a blond who was just turning around and spilled her drink on him.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry" The blonde said and he saw her grab some napkins from the bar, rubbing them over his shirt.

He groaned and looking back, he saw his brother laughing at him. "It's alright" He told the girl.

"No, no, it's all my fault. I didn't see you" She kept saying and apologizing.

Kol put his hands on hers to make her stop and when she lifted her head up and their eyes met, he could have sworn that he had seen her before. He opened his mouth to say something but next thing he knew he felt a push from behind and he put his hands out to try and keep his balance but the blonde wasn't so lucky. He saw her falling on the ground and the sound of glass breaking was heard.

"Shit" Kol muttered when he saw the blood. He crouched down to the blondes eye level moving his hands over her lower half, trying to find where and how much she was hurt. "I'm a doctor, where is the blood coming from?"

"It's fine, it's just my ankle" She said and he heard her swearing under her breath.

She tried to get up and he put one arm around her waist to help her up and started moving them to the exit. "Let's get you to the hospital."

"There's no need, I can just go home and wash it, I'll be ok" She tried to say but he wasn't having any of it.

"I wouldn't be a very good doctor if I would let you do that" He smirked and once outside he called the cab and helped her in.

"Favorite color?" Kol asked, while cleaning the cut on her ankle. It wasn't a deep cut, but she still needed stitches. Because he had been drinking, he couldn't do it himself so while the nurse was out of their room, he kept talking to her about anything. So far he learned that her name was Caroline Forbes, she moved to the big city after getting a job at Gossip, one of the best woman's magazines in the city and she only had three drinks before she had ruined her dress and shoes that cost her two months pay check.

Caroline lifted her head off the bed and looked at him with a 'are you for real' expression which made Kol chuckle.

"No, no more questions about me. You better start telling me about yourself since you've been holding my ankle for the past seven minutes" Caroline said and smirked, letting her head fall back on the pillow. Whatever drugs they gave her were slowly kicking in and she was quite mellow.

Kol removed his hands from her leg and stepped to the side, so he could sit next to her bed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm Kol. Kol Mikaelson. I work here at this hospital and so far, my day or night, I should add, hasn't exactly gone to plan" He said.

"Really? So it wasn't your plan to let a girl throw her drink at you and then take her to the hospital because some jerk made her fall and cut her leg open? Shocking" Caroline said with a grin on her face.

She raised a hand to her face and looked at the blood there. She will need to wash that when she can see straight, she thought.

Kol let out a small laugh and shook his head looking at the blonde. "No, not at all. " He said, and saw that the nurse was coming back so he stepped out to let Caroline have privacy.

Outside, he took out his phone and saw that he had missed calls from his brother. He sent back a message that everything was fine and that he will call him tomorrow. After looking at his time he groaned seeing it was already three in the morning. So much for going home early and getting some much needed shut eye.

"Alright, I'm free to go" Caroline said, limping out of the room an hour later. "Thanks for bringing me"

"It was kind of my fault…"

"Yeah, yeah and what kind of a doctor would you be if you didn't… Yada yada" Caroline said and moved her hand dismissively.

Kol chuckled and helped her get in the cab, reminding to take her painkillers and come back if she feels any pain or just wants to have a chat with the doctor.

Caroline thanked him and with a smirk closed the cab door and he watched her drive away.

And only then he remembered something.

He didn't get her number.

* * *

Waking up in the morning, Caroline winced when she moved her foot and lifting herself up on her elbows saw that she was in her living room.

On the couch.

And the laptop was open.

"Oh crap, what did I do?" She asked out loud, moving to a better position and looking over her profile page.

So far it looked like she had altered her bio and now she sounded more like her. High on painkillers. Well that was just great. Groaning she noticed that there were messages in her inbox and moved the mouse over to open it. A few of them were just boring and lame questions about her and if she wanted to give her email address so they could exchange pictures. She deleted them right away until one caught her eye.

**From: **TroubleMaker

**Subject: **Hi

**Text: ** So, hello, I guess. You must have gotten many messages already and I don't even know if you will read this one but where's the harm in trying, right? Well, I been on this site for a while now and let me tell you, it isn't all that great. I understand the reason for no pictures but you can never know who you are talking to, right? Though I am exactly what it says in my bio, so have a look and if you want, write me back. It might take me a while to answer because of my work but I'll get back to you.

-TroubleMaker.

Caroline read the message three more times and twice she checked out his profile. At least he was polite enough. She shrugged and pushed the laptop away. She needs some food before she even thinks about writing him back. With a groan she lifted herself up from the couch, wincing at her hurt muscles and dragged herself into the kitchen. Opening her fridge she took out some leftover Chinese takeaway, finding a fork and started eating it cold. She just couldn't bother with warming it up now. After the night she had, nothing would taste good so she will save that for lunch.

A shower and change of clothes later, she was walking, well more like limping, down the hallway to her office. She hoped that no one will stop her and make her explain what was wrong with her. That was not a conversation she wanted to explain right now.

Flopping down in her seat behind the desk, she typed the address of the dating site and kept looking at the message, ready to write something.

"Good night?"

Caroline's head whipped up and she looked at the person standing at her door and sighed in relief.

"Katherine, you scared me"

Katherine Pierce, her boss, raised an eyebrow and smirked walking into the office and sat down on the chair, crossing her legs. "So, what happened?" She nodded towards Caroline's feet.

"Well" Caroline started, moving forwards in her chair and resting her elbows on the desk. "I went to that bar you kept making me go. Threw my drink on some guy and then there was an accident. But it turns out he was a doctor so he took me to hospital and I got stitches"

"Was he hot?"

"Is that all you got from that?" Caroline laughed.

"Well?"

Caroline smiled sweetly before answering. "He was … ok looking, I guess"

Katherine nodded and tapped her manicured finger on the computer. "And that?"

"It's nothing. Elena signed me up to some dating website and I'm just think if I should write back or no"

"Well, you got nothing to lose right? Just have fun" Katherine shrugged and got up, walking out the office without looking back.

Caroline turned back to her computer and after a moment, she let her fingers move over the keys and wrote her reply.

Nothing to lose.

Have fun.

Ok.


End file.
